Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Luke 11 : 27-28
At that time, as Jesus was speaking, a woman spoke from the crowd and said to Him, “Blessed is the one who gave You birth and nursed You!”
Jesus replied, “Truly blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it as well.”
Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Psalm 96 : 1-2, 5-6, 11-12
YHVH reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the distant islands be glad. Clouds and darkness surround Him; justice and right, are His throne.
The mountains melt like wax before YHVH, the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His justice, all peoples see His glory.
He sheds light upon the upright, and gladness upon the just. Rejoice in YHVH, you, who are blameless; and give praise to His holy Name.
Liturgical Colour : Green or Red (Martyrs) or White (Saturday Mass of Our Lady)
Joel 4 : 12-21
Rise up, o people, and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, nations. Bring a sickle for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the wine press is full, and the vats overflow; so great is their wickedness! Multitudes and more multitudes in the Valley of Verdict! The day of YHVH is near in the Valley of Verdict! The sun and the moon become dark, the stars lose their radiance.
YHVH roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth are shaken. Indeed, YHVH is a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the Israelites. You will know that I am YHVH, your God, dwelling on Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be a holy place; and foreigners will never pass through there again.
On that day, the mountains shall drip wine and the hills flow with milk; all the streams of Judah will run with water; and a fountain will spring from the house of YHVH, and water the valley of Shittim. On the other hand, Egypt will be devastated; and Edom will become a deserted wasteland, because they committed violence against Judah and shed innocent blood in their country.
But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem through all generations. And I shall avenge their blood and not leave it unpunished, for YHVH dwells in Zion.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Church celebrates the great Feast of one of the Twelve Apostles of the Lord, and who happens to be also one of the Four Evangelists, that is St. Matthew the Apostle, also once known as Levi, the tax collector. As Levi, St. Matthew was a tax collector likely collecting the taxes on behalf of the Roman overlords of the region, and perhaps also the local rulers like the Herodians. Regardless of the details, the tax collectors living and working at the time of the Lord Jesus were really reviled and hated by almost everyone, and the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law in particular despised them and portrayed them as evil and wicked, unworthy of God’s grace, unclean and sinful in their lives and actions.
Why was that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? That is because of the nature of their work, collecting the taxes on behalf of the state and rulers of the time, and by default, no one liked to be taxed or have part of their income and property to be subjected to tax. Then, historically, we must also understand that the Jewish people by the time of the Lord Jesus and His ministry were rather fiercely protective of their nation identity and freedom, as they were not that long ago put under rather intense persecution by the Greek rulers which eventually led to the well-known Maccabean revolts and uprisings, in which the Jewish people managed to free themselves from the tyranny of the Greek kings and overlords, establishing their own independent state, known as the Hasmonean Kingdom.
But this relative freedom and independence did not last long, as the Romans came into the region and became the new overlords of the realm, subjugating the Jewish people under their control, with some conflicts and divisions, some uneasy arrangements that were generally resented by the Jews. Not only that, as the Romans also arranged that another foreigner, from among the Idumeans, living as neighbours to the Jews, to be the ruler of the land, in the person of Herod the Great and his descendants. That was why the tax collectors were often reviled and hated, because they represented those overlords and rulers whom the people disliked, with the added fact that they had to shoulder the additional burden of paying taxes.
Yet, the Lord Jesus went to reach out to those same tax collectors, speaking with them and spending time among them, and even going so far as to have dinner at one of their houses. Such actions were frowned upon by the leaders of the Jewish people, like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, and hence, the Lord was questioned and criticised for having done so. But the Lord made it clear that He came to this world, in order to seek those who have been lost to Him, all those who have fallen into the darkness and into the clutches of sin. He came to gather them all back, His lost sheep, heal them and reconcile them once again to His heavenly Father, our Lord and Creator. He did not forget about them, and wanted everyone to know that they were truly equally beloved by God.
And by calling Levi to be His disciple, and eventually as one of the Twelve Apostles, the Lord showed that everyone has the potential and capacity for greatness in God’s grace and love. The tax collectors had been reviled, hated and looked down upon by many of the people, and yet, they showed greater faith and desire to love God than that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, who stubbornly refused to believe in God despite having witnessed, heard and seen so many of the Lord’s works and wonderful teachings. Those tax collectors came to the Lord, seeking His mercy and forgiveness, wanting to listen to His words and desiring the grace of God, while the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, although they knew the Law and the Prophets well, refused to listen to the Lord or to believe in His truth.
St. Matthew, whose name change indicated his commitment to a new life and service to God, dedicating himself wholeheartedly to the cause of the Lord, eventually did many great and wonderful works for the sake of the Lord and His people. Not only that he wrote one of the Four Gospels, mainly aimed at the Jewish community at the time, in showing Who the Lord Jesus truly was, but he also ministered to the faithful and proclaimed the Lord and His Good News, to the Jewish people in Judea, and also further afield, in places such as Ethiopia, where according to Apostolic traditions, St. Matthew was martyred for his faith, having convinced the virgin daughter of the king of Ethiopia to be a Christian and to consecrate herself to the Lord. St. Matthew was martyred when the new King of Ethiopia, who lusted after the consecrated virgin and nun daughter of the previous king, was rejected and the latter was also rebuked by St. Matthew for his immoral attitude and behaviour.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the examples set by St. Matthew the Apostle and many others of our holy predecessors should remind us all that we are all called to a life that is truly dedicated to God, in our every words, actions and deeds. Just as St. Paul had written in his Epistle to the Ephesians, our first reading passage today, that each and every one of us have been given distinct gifts by the Lord, the gifts, blessings and opportunities which may allow us to do His will in various ways and means, in whatever it is that we are called to do in our lives. And St. Matthew has shown us that even those who have been hated and reviled by the community, dismissed and ostracised as sinners and those deemed unworthy, can indeed do wonderful and great deeds, and can be fruitful in their lives and works, and be great saints and role models like St. Matthew himself, among many others.
Today, as we rejoice in memory of the faith, commitment and works of St. Matthew the Apostle, Holy Apostle of the Lord and Evangelist, let us all do our very best so that in our lives, we may always be ever faithful and be ever more committed in each and every one of our actions and works, so that in all that we say and do, we will always strive to do God’s will, and that we will always ever be filled with God’s grace in all things. Let us also not be judgmental or be biased upon others just because we think that we are better than them or that we deem others to be less worthy than us. May the Lord always be with us all, and may He empower us with the strength and grace to do His will at all times. May He bless our every good efforts and endeavours, now and always. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Matthew 9 : 9-13
At that time, as Jesus moved on from the place where He cured a paralytic man, He saw a man named Matthew, at his seat in the custom house; and He said to him, “Follow Me!” And Matthew got up and followed Him.
Now it happened, while Jesus was at table in Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners joined Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is it, that your Master eats with sinners and tax collectors?”
When Jesus heard this, He said, “Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do. Go, and find out what this means : What I want is mercy, not sacrifice. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 18 : 2-3, 4-5
The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. Day talks it over with day; night hands on the knowledge to night.
No speech, no words, no voice is heard – but the call goes on throughout the universe, the message is felt to the ends of the earth.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Ephesians 4 : 1-7, 11-13
Therefore, I, the prisoner of Christ, invite you, to live the vocation you have received. Be humble, kind, patient and bear with one another in love. Make every effort to keep among you, the unity of spirit, through bonds of peace. Let there be one body, and one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God. One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God, the Father of all, Who is above all, and works through all, and is in all.
But to each of us, divine grace is given, according to the measure of Christ’s gift. As for His gifts, to some, He gave to be Apostles; to others, prophets, or even evangelists; or pastors and teachers. So, He prepared those who belong to Him, for the ministry, in order to build up the Body of Christ, until we are all united, in the same faith and knowledge of the Son of God. Thus, we shall become the perfect Man, upon reaching maturity, and sharing the fullness of Christ.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, we are all reminded of the need for all of us as Christians, that is as God’s followers and disciples, to truly obey and follow the Law and commandments of God in all things, and in all of our words, actions and deeds. Otherwise, our faith is empty and meaningless, and have no bearing upon us and our identity as God’s people, those whom the Lord had called and chosen to be His own people and beloved ones. We have to be genuinely and truly faithful to God, knowing and appreciating His Law and commandments, that we may indeed embody our faith in all the things we say and do, at all times.
In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to St. Timothy, we heard of the Apostle telling St. Timothy of the fundamental belief that all of us Christians believe in, that we all believe in the salvation that we all have attained through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Whom God the Father had sent into this world, so that by His coming and entry into our world, all of us might be brought into the new life and existence that He has revealed to us, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, our Saviour, might lead us into full and complete reconciliation with God, our loving Father and Creator. We may be freed therefore from the threat of eternal damnation and sufferings in the darkness and in hellfire, reserved to those who have rejected God and disobeyed Him. Without the grace of God and His salvation, we would have ended up in the same fate as well.
But the Lord showed forth His compassion and great mercy, His desire to be reunited with us and through all of these, He has opened for us the certain and sure path to His grace and salvation, by sending unto us His Son, to bear the Cross that contained our sins and our innumerable iniquities, so that by His loving sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary, He might crush the dominion and tyranny of sin that have burdened us all these while, and through Him, we have seen the light of sure hope and grace, the path out of the darkness that surrounded us and kept us away from the fullness of God’s love and care. Yet, many of us still do not have true, strong and genuine faith in God, and many of us still allow ourselves to be easily swayed by the temptations and wickedness present all around us.
In our Gospel passage today, we heard from the Lord speaking to His disciples that no good trees produce bad fruits and vice versa, and using that parable to teach them all how those who are good in their hearts draw upon those goodness to do what is good and righteous in their lives, while those whose hearts and minds were steeped in evil and wicked things, would inevitably draw upon those and commit what are evil and wicked in the sight of God and men alike. He also used another well-known parable, comparing two people with different attitudes towards God’s truth and teachings, likening them to people who built their houses upon two different types of foundations, be it foundation of solid rock, or a house that was not built on any foundation or support at all.
These all showed us how faith in God is truly very important for each and every one of us, and is here represented by that foundation in the Lord’s parable. For without faith, we can live our lives and do our actions and works, but what we say, do and carry out in our lives may not bring us to the fullness and true righteousness and virtues, grace and salvation that are found in God alone. If we put our trust in our own achievements, power and ability, and in worldly desires and means, then sooner or later we will realise that none of those things can truly satisfy or guarantee us, as none of those last forever, unlike putting our trust and faith in God, through which we can truly gain assurance of salvation and true glory and joy, the guarantee of eternal life and true satisfaction in life, which the world cannot give to us, no matter how many things we possess or how powerful we may be in this world. We must always trust in the love and mercy of God.
Today, the Church celebrates the feast of two great and holy men, whose faith and lives can and should indeed give us the inspiration and courage to carry out our lives and actions in accordance with God and His path. Pope St. Cornelius was the leader of the Universal Church during the time of great persecutions against the Christians throughout the Roman Empire, and also during a time when the Church was torn apart by great disagreement and schisms, particularly by those who disagreed with the practice of readmitting those who had lapsed in their Christian faith, or practiced pagan ways in order to protect themselves and avoid the harsh persecutions common at that time. Those who refused to allow those lapsed Christians who repented to rejoin the Church were known as the Novatianists after their most prominent leader, whom they elected as a rival Pope or Antipope.
That leader, Novatian, rejected the election of Pope St. Cornelius as the leader of the Church succeeding the martyred Pope St. Fabian because to the former, the latter was too lenient in allowing the lapsed Christians to rejoin the Church as according to the Novatianists, once a Christian has lapsed in the faith, then they can no longer be forgiven or be readmitted in their lives, in a rather self-righteous and almost Pharisaical kind of attitude, without understanding and appreciating how the Lord Himself would have reached out to those lapsed Christians and those who had been lost, like the ones who during the time of the Lord’s ministry were deemed as unworthy and sinful, like the tax collectors, prostitutes and those who suffered from ailments and demonic possessions. In the same manner therefore, Pope St. Cornelius and his compatriot, St. Cyprian of Carthage, another renowned leader of the Church, sought to champion this true ideal of the Church.
Essentially, as what we all still believe to this day, all of us believe that the Church is not just a museum for the ones who are holy, but is also a hospital for sinners. The Church is the Lord’s manifest outreach to the whole world, to all of the children of mankind, that each and every one of them may come to know the Lord, and be part of the one Body of Christ, called and chosen from the world to walk once again righteously in the path that God has shown them. The Church should not close its doors to those who truly and genuinely repented, and have been willing to carry out the penance for their sins, if the sinners desired to return to the Lord and to seek His mercy. After all, that is what the Lord Himself entrusted to His Church through St. Peter, as He entrusted to him the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, the power to bind or loosen those on earth that they may also be either bound or loosened in Heaven.
Pope St. Cornelius and St. Cyprian both courageously led the Church and resisted against all the efforts of those who sought to exclude the lapsed Christians from returning to the Lord, and their great efforts and works eventually prevailed, as the support for the Novatian heretics floundered and the Church kept its open arms and doors, ever ready to welcome those sinners who come seeking God’s forgiveness and grace. This is therefore also a reminder to all of us that we should not allow ourselves to be swayed by the sense of pride and self-righteousness, which may end up causing us to behave in the same Pharisaical and prideful way as those Novatianists, but instead, we should always be caring and concerned about our fellow brothers and sisters, many of whom are in need of our help and assistance in their struggles to live lives worthy of the Lord.
Let us all therefore today resolve to live our lives ever more worthily of the Lord, by doing what He has willed and commanded us to do, obeying Him as best as we are able to, in every moments and opportunities. Let us all remind one another of God’s ever gracious and generous love for us, His mercy and compassion which have always been generously given to us, at all times. Let us also help one another to walk with ever greater dedication in the path of our Christian faith, and be great role models, examples and inspirations to one another, now and always. May God bless each one of us in our every good efforts and endeavours. Amen.
Liturgical Colour : Red
Luke 6 : 43-49
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, “No healthy tree bears bad fruit, no poor tree bears good fruit. And each tree is known by the fruit it bears : you do not gather figs from thorns, or grapes from brambles. Similarly, the good person draws good things from the good stored in his heart, and an evil person draws evil things from the evil stored in his heart. For the mouth speaks from the fullness of the heart.”
“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what the one is like, who comes to Me, and listens to My words, and acts accordingly. That person is like the builder who dug deep, and laid the foundations of his house on rock. The river overflowed, and the stream dashed against the house, but could not carry it off because the house had been well built.”
“But the one who listens and does not act, is like a man who built his house on the ground without a foundation. The flood burst against it, and the house fell at once : and what a terrible disaster that was!”
Liturgical Colour : Red
Psalm 112 : 1-2, 3-4, 5a and 6-7
Alleluia! Praise, o servants of YHVH, praise the Name of YHVH! Blessed be the Name of YHVH now and forever!
From eastern lands to the western islands, may the Name of YHVH be praised! YHVH is exalted over the nations; His glory above the heavens.
Who is like YHVH our God, Who also bends down to see on earth as in heaven? He lifts up the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 